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New Korg Krome Workstation Priced Starting At $999

Korg earlier in the week introduced the Krome keyboard line – a new family of workstation keyboards.

The response here and at the Korg Facebook page was mixed. Some readers were hoping that Korg’s ‘major announcement’ would be a new analog synth, while others were disappointed by what they saw as another “generic, overpriced workstation keyboard”.

Now Korg has released pricing details for the Krome, though, and it looks like the new workstation is priced very competitively, given its features. Krome features include sounds derived from their flagship Kronos keyboard, a 7-inch color touchscreen, unlooped piano samples and integration with your DAW.

Krome 88: NH keyboard, reproducing the weighted response of an acoustic piano, with a heavier touch in the lower register and a lighter feel in the upper register (A0-C8, transposable from A1-C7 to A3-C9)

I don’t know about that. the $999 price (a bit less on the street) is actually an excellent deal for the 61-key version, even though I’m not usually a fan of workstations. Korg’s stuff is always built to very high quality, they have a decade of experience with touchscreen user interfaces, you can load your own waves into it, and DAW integration is a lot cheaper than something like a Virus TI, even if it doesn’t have any input/sample ability .

There’s a lot to be said for working from a workstation’s palette…. the Neptunes sound, for instance. How to mitigate having too much choice but also promote understanding of the entire spectrum sound is something that I’m still trying to get to the bottom of..!

Of course, the price would go up if you used a more expensive DAW, got a better quality keyboard with a few knobs and sliders and sturdier construction, invested in something like NI Komplete 8 in order to get a REALLY wide palette of sounds, etc. But, you also have a 15-inch screen, compared to 7-inch, much easier editing of midi sequences, a more flexible and expandable system, etc., etc.

I’m not trying to start a flame war. I’m just playing devil’s advocate, and was curious to see how prices would compare. Personally, I prefer the flexibility of using a computer. But it seems like Korg has actually done a decent job of creating an affordable option for people who want to use a workstation.

For people who really want to play or to perform live, these workstations make a lot of sense, because your not booting anything up, loading drivers & piecing gear together, you just turn it on and play.

There’s also the question of what kind of player you are; as came up in the product announcement chat, if you’re doing jazz sessions or playing in a rock band, stage pianos and workstations are still the rig of choice, overall. It’s a shame in a way, ’cause a decent controller plus something like Pianoteq can cover most player’s needs, but the lock-in factor is pretty strong in this part of the “market”…

Wow, look, someone actually asked about the synth itself instead of the color of the case or bitching because its not analog! I used to run a Korg into a MIDI splitter and control 2 outboard synths with it. Each got a track of the 16 available and it worked beautifully. Since when did people decide that workstations were inferior in some way? I seem to recall having up to SIXTEEN patches running at once without a hiccup. With USB controllers starting at about $200 for cheesy ones and topping out at over $1000, Krome seems perfectly competitive, especially if you are a home-studio type, as most of us are. You guys have become spoiled by having too many choices, ahem!

The M50’s synth engine is pretty flexible (2 filters in parallel etc) and still really lots of fun to edit, and this should be even better, if not for anything else, then at least for its bigger and better screen, virtual sliders and knobs and user loadable samples!!!

I’m saving for Kronos for even more bang of buck, but this should be the one to watch in 1k$ league!

First of all,$450-at the most,will buy a 500GB HD and 4GB of RAM.About 60%of the Sonik Synth sounds that are in Sampletank are garbage and in no way,shape,or form,do the pianos even remotely measure up to what is in the Krome.
As for performance,if you tried running more than 8 tracks in the DAW,you would overload the CPU and after about a month or two of recording,the storage of all that data would slow that laptop down to a crawl and it wouldn’t be long before you’d crash it.

That fact that the Krome offers more than any other budget hardware keyboard out there and undercuts all of the competition price-wise AND has complete PC integration,make your contrasts null in void.

I’d have to play one to see if the sounds that I need are represented in an ok fashion. As for the price, $1000 for a decent workstation keyboard with a healthy variety of decent ROM sounds, and a pretty advanced looking sequencer seems like a reasonable deal. The fact that it has an SD slot makes me think it should be able to load user samples, but I didn’t see any mention of it above. Does anyone know?

Yeah, won’t be replacing my m3 anytime soon. No karma on this board but I imagine that the pianos are much better. Pricing is very competitive. This will definitely give Kurzweil something to worry about when compared to the PC3LE

I agree….I will stick with my M3 as my live rig…I added the Korg PS 60 (under$500) as my second tier…best live performance synth for quick tweaking….the two together are incredible for lush pads and string…

I don’t think anyone will view this as an innovative keyboard. For its strengths, bigger/better sample ROM (but even then, probably not without it’s clunkers), price, build-quality is probably decent (but that’s just a guess), sequencer is probably good, touch-screen, etc.

At $1600 for the 88-key, it’s not a bad deal if the action is good. I’m one of those that assumed it would be $3K, so Korg definitely came in under my expectations. It seems like a better deal for a gigging keyboardist than as something for sitting in the studio (assuming the studio already has a computer and a MIDI controller).

These threads are funny. This is a gig ready axe that goes for the price of a half decent guitar. Guitar players will think nothing of using a particular guitar for a specific tone, maybe for just one song in their set. Are keyboardists cheaper than guitar players?

This is an instrument that is meant to be played, as in with your own hands, using up to ten fingers. If you can’t play, probably it is not for you. If you can, you cannot judge “good value” from a brochure or a spec sheet, especially in a case like this where price seems reasonable for any playing musician, hence comparison with guitars that, oddly enough, tend to be more expensive than keyboards these days. It is you who seem to be selling something here. Not that I care if you do, but if you don’t, your undercover sales rep paranoia is something you should worry about. BTW, my own main board is a Roland. (I have several guitars, too)

Personally, with synth sounds I prefer a groove or rhythm oriented interface with tempest or MPC style pad layout, or no keys, because I already have nice key action and besides Korg mod sequencers are fun and powerful, but either way. Do it Korg!

Definitely interested. Been frustrated with the lack of 73/76 note keyboards and controllers that don’t weigh so much. Was considering the Roland Jupiter 50 but thought it is over priced. Don’t care for Kurzweil organ sounds. Had and liked the Yamaha MOX6 and was considering a MOX8 but really wanted a 7. Love Nord sounds but too expensive. Was considering a computer setup for gigging and like the thought of the versatility that it would make available but not the expense and setup time.

A decade ago this would have been very interesting. For now… the very best masterkeyboard 88 keys Doepfer LMK is cheaper. So you have a soundmodule and sequencer for the rest of the money. And for that money you can buy really interesting plugins and logic pro.

I think it would have been nice to make it all half price and just masterkeyboards.

Short answer: Hell yeah. There are not only the basics of circuit design and balancing materials against price point, but also trying to adapt to new formats such as Thunderbolt and the fickleness of people who sway back and forth with the trends. Its becoming harder to do, too, because “innovation” has given way to refinement. We’ve reached the point where the hassles of 3 decades back are just insider lore now. Computers can be pissy, but MIDI has long since been stable and only serious analog synths drift in pitch at all. Once they settle in, they tend to stay
on target. So aside from better stability in a few areas like conflicting drivers, exactly where do we need “innovation?” It looks to me as if its back on the user to make good music.

The whole workstation concept needs a serious overhaul, mainly due to the popularity of DAWs, plugins, and software/hardware hybrids… Also, everyone who owns a workstation needs a DAW to (professionally) track out the music they have made.

With that in mind, Krome becomes less of a bargain for those looking to actually record their own music. Krome owners will eventually have to buy a computer, interface, cables, etc… to finish what they started on their workstation.

The fact is that all of the modern workstations, including Krome, lack the depth and versatility of Software. In many cases, plugin romplers sound more authentic, with multi-gigabyte instruments containing hundreds of times more samples per program. Also, a Workstation is nothing more than a glorified computer running custom software. With this in mind, I’m positive that the big 3 could make a better product. They just need to re-think how people will be using their products.

For live musician/band/church guys, YES. This is cool. For everyone else, there are better, more powerful, less expensive (in the long term) options.